ARMENIAN AMBASSADOR TO U.S. RESPONDS TO WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE

HULIQ, NC
Oct 30 2007

6vote The Washington Post Wednesday published a letter by the Armenian
Ambassador to the United States, Tatoul Margarian in response to
an article entitled "Armenians Who Need Help Today," published on
October 15.

The Washington Post article, written by Fred Hiatt, urged the Armenian
Diaspora to work as hard for democracy in Armenia as for congressional
recognition of the genocide.

"Imagine what the Armenian Diaspora might have accomplished had it
worked as hard for democracy in Armenia as it did for congressional
recognition of the genocide Armenians suffered nearly a century ago,
said Hiatt in his article. "It’s even possible that modern Armenia
would be as democratic as modern Turkey."

The same day Armenian Ambassador to the United States, Tatoul
Margarian, responded by sending a letter to the Washington Post. The
letter said Fred Hiatt’s "Armenians Who Need Help Today" leads
the debate over recognition of the Armenian genocide in the wrong
direction.

The Ambassador mentioned that the difficulties that Armenia has
encountered during its successful democratic and economic transition
are not taboo subjects for genuine discussion and members of our
Diaspora have always provided economic assistance and been actively
involved in issues such as the environment, civil and political
liberties, and security. This activism, he added, has not come at
the expense of the quest for genocide recognition, a moral duty for
all Armenians and all of humanity.

"In addition, the Turkish state’s denial of the Armenian genocide
translates into its continuing refusal to normalize relations with
Armenia, leading us to believe that our only choice is to pursue both
historical and contemporary justice," Margarian said.

"The fact that Armenia’s democratic transition is not yet complete
should not prevent Armenia from condemning crimes against humanity,
especially a genocide that killed 1.5 million of our ancestors, took
their historical homeland and destroyed a millenniums-old culture,
The Ambassador’s letter said. "The suggestion that Armenia’s routine
transition problems and the genocide carried out by Ottoman Turkey
can be weighed on the same scale is ill-founded, to say the least,"
the Ambassador wrote.